Let me introduce myself. I am a capuchin (Franciscan) monk and I actively play the 13-course baroque lute.

For years I am puzzled with the statement of Nikolaus Harnoncourt in his book »The Musical Dialogue«, (Amadeus Press, Portland Oregon) p. 14, »It is not easy to imagine the sound of the lute, which had metal strings during the Middle Ages and was plucked with a quill plectrum. If we were to use similar metal strings on a Renaissance lute, we would have an approximate idea of how the Gotic lute might have sounded…The sound of a Renaissance lute with metal strings, plucked with a quill, resembles that of an old Flemish spinet: very clear, but not very loud, full in the fundamental tone, but nonetheless with brilliant overtones…«

I cannot imagine how Harnoncourt got the idea that mediavel lutes had metal strings. All the evidence we have is that lutes used gut strings. He is right that they were usually plucked with a quill plectrum. The only instruments before the 15th century that had metal strings (which were brass or silver) were the psaltery and the Irish harp. Both of these instruments have designs that allow string length to vary with pitch so that the stress in the string material need not to vary much. In the late 14th century, German wire drawers learned, for the first time, to draw iron wire with the aid of water power. Iron wire that was wrought (hammered to shape) had been used for a long time, but it was uniform enough for musical strings, but drawn wire was fine. Iron is stronger than brass, so using iron treble strings and brass basses allowed more string stress variation and so less length variation to get the desired pitch range. This led to the development of the harpsichord and clavichord around 1400. The first metal-strung fingerboard instrument (i.e. with all the strings having about the same length) was the 15th century Italian cetra, a modified revival of the mediaval citole (a kind of plucked fiddle), and it had an open-string range of only a fifth or sixth. The citterns of the next century were developed from this instrument.

The 16th century lute usually had 6 gut courses: the 1st single, the 2nd and 3rd unison pairs, and the rest octave pairs. A 1511 German book indicated that some lutes had brass lower octave strings. These could only have been on the 2nd and 3rd courses. At around the middle of the century, the French developed twisted brass bass strings for their citterns. Around 1580, a Nuremberg wire drawer developed a steel that was so strong that it could be tuned as high as gut. Then it became possible to have metal-strung instruments (with steel highest string, iron not-so-high strings, brass middle strings and twisted brass strings) that could tune like gut strings. The orpharion was a large cittern-like instrument that was tuned like a lute. In 1618, Praetorius reported that some people used metal strings on ordinary lutes and violins. After 1621, that wire drawer retired rather than divulge the secret of how he made his steel strings. Such strings became unavailable, and instruments like orpharion, that depended on steel strings, became redundant. It was only in the 19th century, when piano wire was developed, that a metal string that could tune as high as gut became available again.

In history, as in other type of scholarship, all kinds of things are possible for which there is no evidence to support. So I cannot say that metal strung medieval lutes could never have happened. All I can say is that there is no evidence for it.

Odgovor fra Antuna Segermanu od 25. 6. 2008.

fra Antun Mrzlečki Osijek, 25.06.2008.

Kapucinski samostan

Kapucinska 41

HR – 31000 Osijek

Dear Mr. Segerman,

I thank you wholeheartedly on your reply. You have confirmed what I already thought to be a well accepted fact among lutenists. I have searched through my sources concerning strings, and it was a relief when you confirmend my opinions.

I have met Nikolaus Harnoncourt personally when I presented him a copy of his book »Musik als Klangrede« that I translated for the croatian edition. Now I wrote him a letter in which I have politely asked for a clarification his source of evidence for the statement on metal strings on mediavel lutes which appeared in his recently published second book »The Musical Dialogue« in Croatia. I hope to get a reply from him.